2012 Governor's Awards for the Arts in Ohio
About the Awards Artist
Debra Joyce Dawson, Pataskala
Debra Joyce Dawson is a gatherer of both materials and experiences. She travels the world for sights—including Europe, Asia, Puerto Rico, North America, India, Bhutan and Cuba—and trolls art supply houses for new surfaces and tools. Her boundless energy is captured in her paintings, which are both controlled and exuberant. The sense of restraint is achieved by her practice of always setting up a problem to work on, such as brushwork, speed or paint application. However, this control is finally overruled by her lively surfaces, with an unusual ability to draw the eye through the composition to unexpected places.
Dawson, born in 1950 in Maryland, received formal art training in her home state. After marrying and moving to Ohio, she continued to study art at Denison University and the Columbus College of Art and Design. Dawson continues her education by taking plein air master classes. She is a founding member and past president of the Ohio Plein Air Society.
Her work has been shown and published widely. Exhibitions include a solo show at the Zanesville Museum of Art and pieces in national shows, including Contemporary American Realism: 2008 at the Ft. Wayne Museum of Art, and Viewpoint: 2008 & 2010 in Cincinnati. Dawson’s works are in the permanent collections of the Columbus Museum of Art, Richmond Art Museum and the Ohio Judicial Center. She regularly teaches workshops, travels extensively, and was an artist-in-residence for Michigan’s Hiawatha National Forest.
Dawson is represented by the Sharon Weiss Gallery in Columbus and the Eisele Gallery of Fine Art in Cincinnati. Her sixth solo exhibition with the Sharon Weiss Gallery opened on June 1, 2012.
Visit Debra Joyce Dawson's website at: www.debrajoycedawson.com
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